The Bay is back. After not fishing this area for over a month, I fished the Upper Bay today and came away with seven schoolies in various spots using small bucktail jigs (see photo at right). My father fished this area yesterday and landed a dozen schoolies. With water temperatures dropping in the Bay and lots of bait around, reports are filtering in about decent fishing for stripers as well as bluefish.
The oceanfront continues to run hot. Everywhere you find bait, there are lots of fish, generally a mix of stripers, bluefish and albies. However, you need to find the bait to find the fish. Today, while I was catching schoolies in the Bay, my son, Ben called from the oceanfront to report some fantastic fishing he was into. He excitedly told of a pile of keeper bass right in front of the rock he was standing on. He could see dozens of big fish just tearing through schools of bay anchovies. His score for the afternoon was eight keepers on small swimmers (see pic at left).
So, things are hot on two fronts heading into this long weekend. If you fish the Bay, hit a number of spots to find fish. As far as the oceanfront, my advice is to ride around the oceanfront until you find the birds working and the bait. It's a guarantee you will find fish under the bait. It can happen anywhere from Narragansett to the Westerly beaches.
